What should happen to seven Leicester City players as Harry Winks dilemma debated
Your questions answered on Jannik Vestergaard’s contract, Harry Winks’ best back-up, how many points City could get this season, and where they would need to strengthen if promoted
Harry Winks has proven to be an excellent signing for Leicester City with the England international looking head and shoulders above most of the Championship.
But Winks has played more minutes than any other City player. He’s going to need a break at some point, and there’s no guarantee he won’t get an injury, so who replaces him then? That’s one of the topics on this week’s fan Q+A.
Also on the agenda was the future of Jannik Vestergaard and six other players out of contract next summer, whether City will struggle and how many points they might collect, and the positions that would need strengthening should they get promoted. You can read our answers below.
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Q: Do you think Vestergaard will sign a new contract if we do get promoted?
A: That’s a tricky one. I’d probably lean more towards no for the time being. Vestergaard was adamant he wanted to leave in the summer, and spoke about doing so even in the week before the season began. At that point, he knew he had a good chance of game-time because Coady was injured, plus he had been playing in pre-season, and yet he was talking about moving to a club in one of Europe’s top-five leagues. He said there was interest but it didn’t seem like any of that materialised.
But if his desire is to play in a top division and City get promoted then I suppose it’s possible. I do wonder how the squad might change if City go up though. Obviously they’re not going to dominate the ball as much as they do now, and so are going to have to defend more often. That means Vestergaard’s lack of pace could be exposed more often. Is that such a concern that City wouldn’t want him to be a starter if they did go up? It’s a question to consider, but not for a few months yet.
Q: If Harry Winks was to get injured or suspended, who will step in to fill his boots? I heard Braybrooke is the most similar player to Harry. Is he good enough to play for the first team as McAteer has made that step up?
A: If Winks was to be suspended, and he is only one yellow away from being so, then it would be Choudhury stepping into his position. The problem there is that Choudhury is also first-choice back-up to Ricardo in the full-back-turned-midfielder role, and he’s now first-choice back-up for Justin in the left-back-turned-centre-back role. So there’s a possibility he might be needed elsewhere. In that case, I’d guess it would be Ndidi dropping back. That’s who Maresca mentioned, along with Choudhury, when I asked about Winks replacements a while ago.
But yes, stylistically, Braybrooke is the best option to replace Winks. His game intelligence is far above what it usually is for a teenager with such little experience. He also has the passing range and the willingness to carry the ball that would see him thrive in the role too. Because Braybrooke had not had a loan spell anywhere, I was previously unsure if he’d be able to immediately step up to Championship level, but now I’ve seen McAteer adapt so well, I’d be confident in Braybrooke stepping up. Him, Alves, and Nelson were the three from the academy being tipped for the very top not so long ago, so if McAteer can do it, Braybrooke should be able to as well. In fact, if he’d been fit, I think we’d have seen him in at least a couple of games so far.
The issue at the moment is his fitness. He’s due to be available to play Under-21s games at some point in November. If he gets a good couple of months of football under his belt, by January, he should either be ready enough to come into the first team, or to get a loan spell out. I’d probably keep him around and get him games under Maresca.
Q: What’s your thoughts on the out of contract players we have? Who should we try and renew and who should we let go?
A: There’s a long way to go, but I’d say right now that I would want to keep Ndidi and Iheanacho should City get promoted. So far, they’ve shown to be important members of Maresca’s squad, and I think they would continue to be such in the Premier League.
Although I thought Praet did well in those first few games of the season, and he could do very well when he comes back from injury, I don’t think he will be interested in signing a new contract no matter what, so that’s probably something that’s already decided. Vestergaard may be in a similar situation and may take the decision out of City’s hands. But there is also the possibility that City don’t need him in the Premier League if Coady does overtake him in the pecking order, which was the plan when Coady was signed. Plus, I think City would want to sign some quicker defenders if they do go up.
That leaves Albrighton and Vardy. Albrighton, I think no matter what happens this season, it’s probably the end for him. Vardy, if City go up, I would hope he gets another one-year contract. I thought he struggled for the most part last season in the Premier League, but his recent form under Maresca has suggested he may yet be able to do a job in the top flight. Also, and I know you can’t really bring emotions into it, but even if he is in his late-30s, it would feel wrong not to give him a new contract in the event of promotion. I think the club would be aware it’s not a good look if they let go of their greatest-ever player after he scores the goals to get them promoted, even if he is getting on a bit and is on a big wage.
Q: Where do you see us struggling this season? Because the more we win the more I get annoyed that we lost to Hull. Also, how many points do you see us getting?
A: I wrote after the Stoke game that to reach the average number of points required for promotion (86), City need 19 more wins, meaning they could afford to drop points in 16 of their remaining 35 matches. I don’t see them struggling enough to fail to win 16 fixtures.
I think it is games like the Hull one where they may slip up and have to accept a draw or an unfortunate defeat, games where the opposition score from their only chance and then have the defensive organisation to restrict City to limited chances of their own. As Maresca says, when they train against the Under-21s at Seagrave, they struggle to break them down, so there are going to be a few more matches where City don’t break through. But right now, I don’t think there will be enough of those games to ever knock them out of the race for automatic promotion.
It feels far too premature to be predicting City to top Reading’s record points total of 106, but I do think it’s possible. I’ll be conservative for now and say they will get at least 90 points.
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